Food and Braces: What to Know

Posted April 17, 2018.

Do you know what foods you can and can’t eat when you’re wearing braces? Or do you just eat food and take a risk that you won’t break your braces?

A lot of people take that approach, surprisingly. It’s hard to give up your favorite food for a few years just because you’re wearing some extra metal and wire in your mouth. But the thing is, if you’re not careful, the food you eat can break your braces.

To avoid those problems, Dr. Chris Shannon recommends that patients at Shannon Orthodontics in Davenport, Florida avoid these following foods.

PopcornMovies aren’t complete without a bucket of popcorn, right? Well, they’ll have to be for a bit while you’re wearing braces. The kernels get stuck in the brackets and wires, and can actually break your braces. That’s not a position you want to be in since broken orthodontic equipment can be painful and needs to be fixed right away.

Caramel and nutsIf you’re a fan of Snickers bars, you’ll have to cut back while wearing braces caramel gets stuck in your braces, and trying to clean it off can actually break them sometimes. The same goes for nuts, though these aren’t as hard on your braces as caramel.

CitrusLastly, citrus contains some acid that can wear away the cement used to keep your braces in place. You can still drink citrus – like orange juice – but you’ll want to limit your intake.